'She will be famous some day; and you ought at any rate to read her
book.'

'Yes, I ought, I know. In fact, some years ago I should have done it
immediately, because I had a reason for pushing on that way just then.'

'Ah, what was that?'

'Well, I thought of going in for Westminster Abbey myself at that time;
but a fellow has so much to do, and--'

'What a pity that you didn't follow it up. A man of your powers, Mr.
Neigh--'

'Afterwards I found I was too steady for it, and had too much of the
respectable householder in me. Besides, so many other men are on the
same tack; and then I didn't care about it, somehow.'

'I don't understand high art, and am utterly in the dark on what are the
true laws of criticism,' a plain married lady, who wore archaeological
jewellery, was saying at this time. 'But I know that I have derived an
unusual amount of amusement from those verses, and I am heartily thankful
to "E." for them.'

'I am afraid,' said a gentleman who was suffering from a bad shirt-front,
'that an estimate which depends upon feeling in that way is not to be
trusted as permanent opinion.'

The subject now flitted to the other end.